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    Unauthorized access hits Sony PlayStation accounts

    By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA - Associated Press | AP – Wed, Oct 12, 2011

    TOKYO (AP) — Sony said Wednesday intruders staged a massive attempt to access user accounts on its PlayStation Network and other online entertainment services in the second major attack on its flagship gaming site this year.

    The Tokyo-based company temporarily locked about 93,000 accounts whose IDs and passwords were successfully ascertained by the blitz. Sony sent email notifications and password reset procedures to affected customers on the PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment services.

    Credit card numbers linked to the compromised accounts are not at risk, Sony said. It has "taken steps to mitigate the activity" and is investigating any wrongful use of the accounts themselves.

    "Less than one tenth of one percent" of the service's customers may have been affected, Sony said in a statement.

    The announcement follows an embarrassing data breach in April, which compromised personal data from more than 100 million online gaming and entertainment accounts and forced PlayStation Network to be shut for a month.

    Sony was subsequently criticized for lax security and acting too slowly to inform customers as it grappled with one of the largest-ever security thefts.

    Sony confirmed the latest incidents after its security systems detected an unusually high number of login attempts that failed, said Sony spokesman Sean Yoneda. The company suspects that those responsible obtained large data sets from other companies or sources, which were then used to try to access Sony accounts.

    "What happened in April was a breach on our servers as we said in our announcements," Yoneda said. "But this time around, there was no intrusion on our servers. This was ... taking someone else's identity and trying to use that to access our services."

    The unauthorized access attempts occurred between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10 and targeted accounts globally. The company said it is unclear whether the attempts were carried out by a single individual or multiple parties.

    Sony's customer service centers around the world have not seen a spike in user calls related to the incidents, Yoneda said.

    Under Chief Executive Howard Stringer, Sony aims to more deeply connect its hardware, content and services. Executives have said the hacker attacks in the spring did not derail that core strategy.

    The PlayStation Network bounced back relatively quickly, with the vast majority of subscribers returning after Sony began restoring online gaming services in May.

    ___

    Follow Tomoko A. Hosaka at http://twitter.com/tomokohosaka

     

    37 comments

    • Demia
      Demia  •  7 mths ago
      Sony allowed their customer’s (and shareholder’s) information to be availed for exploitation. including the exploitation of the data bases by Sony's "executives" (and I use that word loosely). Said executive(s) used Sony's databases for exploits, industrial espionage, market manipulation, and cowing.

      Sony selected corruption as a good path.
    • ArindamB
      ArindamB  •  7 mths ago
      The company that should be taking note of Sony's misfortune is Nintendo. Their next console (i.e. the Wii U) will be expected to have the sort of online functionality that the PS3 and Xbox 360 have - and that requires an extensive, yet secure, network. If they don't study Sony's plight carefully, they could well suffer similar problems two or three years down the line.

      Frankly, there's no need for three separate gaming networks. Instead of such wasteful (and vulnerable) duplication, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony would do better to join forces and create a single gaming network, that enables consumers of all three consoles to play with each other.
      • Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward 7 mths ago
        What these game machine makers need to realize is that just like DRM, locking their console systems down will be a losing battle and their money is better spent elsewhere. That I think is the lesson they should be learning.
      • gHaDE
        gHaDE 7 mths ago
        it will never going to happen buddy.. sorry..
      • leighton v
        leighton v 7 mths ago
        it would be awesome to see, but 55 year old shareholders in $5000 monkey suits would cry that its eating into their profits
    • Mike
      Mike  •  7 mths ago
      This GD stupidity needs to stop. If you immature, stupid "hackers" have a problem with Sony or any other corporation you need to start taking it up with them and leave the completely innocent customers out of it.
      • Capone
        Capone 7 mths ago
        amen.
      • Michael p
        Michael p 7 mths ago
        Absolutely!
      • Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward 7 mths ago
        So what happens when they ignore you? I think many people in the past have done just that only to be ignored over and over again. I agree that the customer data shouldn't be touched, but I think that's all part of the hackers trying to discredit $ony.

        Think about it, if you really wanted to hurt a company's reputation, wouldn't doing just what the hackers are doing accomplish just that? It angers the customers who won't want to do business with the company and it makes the company look irresponsible.

        They are still idiots, but what they are doing is effective for their purposes.
    • sonny n
      sonny n  •  7 mths ago
      PC ownz all :)
    • Washu
      Washu  •  7 mths ago
      Glad I am not signed up for the PSN or LIVE for that matter. Your information is not secure online, it never was. Stop believing the lies. Want to play with your friends? How about hosting a LAN party? You can still do that you know.
    • AlbanyJim
      AlbanyJim  •  7 mths ago
      PS - it is also not just PS3 people its their online games as well like Everquest 2 - again take responsibility for your account protection.
      • Capone
        Capone 7 mths ago
        you have a point but it's still hard to protect yourself all the time, hackers are getting more and more cpu friendly i should say, hard to keep up with you know!
    • AWESOME
      AWESOME  •  7 mths ago
      OK people, this is not a breach of security on Sony's part. These people ("hackers") got the emails and passwords from some other places and decided to try them out on PSN. Get it? Reading comprehension...
    • kim
      kim  •  7 mths ago
      people this is not even a big hack if this effort is as large as they say to hack it then the new security system is working their effort have awarded them 99.9% of what they got last time and if sony makes another security feature it will be even less next time (If there even is one)
    • Venlee
      Venlee  •  7 mths ago
      sana may package ulit:D
    • George
      George  •  7 mths ago
      well i guess u PS fanboys wont brag about ur free psn---------U GET WHAT U DONT PAY 4--------------- 1 word XBOX--------WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better online system and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better games. Did anyone see tha line at the best buy store in NY --------------900 ppl n line 2 buy GEARS OF WAR 3 when it was released-------------------as of 2day 6million copies sold-----thats crazy------PS DOESNT HAVE GAMES THAT DRAW HUGE CROWDS LIKE THAT not even their most popular game [uncharted] can draw that kind of crowd-------------XBOX360 BEST CONSOLE EVER
      • TC
        TC 7 mths ago
        Uhm ever hear of Uncharted 2 which got game of the year?
      • Patrick
        Patrick 7 mths ago
        And Heavy Rain
    • leighton v
      leighton v  •  7 mths ago
      man, i was gonna finally invest in a ps3, but after this, i guess ill never play last guardian and twisted matal....ho hum...oh, can any ps3 owners verify that you have to have a credit card on file to be able to use the online stuff?
      • Chris H
        Chris H 7 mths ago
        You don't need a credit card on file.
      • kim
        kim 7 mths ago
        Umm PSN is free
      • Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward 7 mths ago
        You use a CC to put money in your 'wallet' so you can buy stuff from the online store. The problem that $ony had before was that they let their users store that CC with their account info (so the user wouldn't have to enter it in every time) and those users who selected that option had their CC's exposed when the user data got compromised because $ony didn't know enough to separate the databases. They've fixed that issue now but it doesn't mean they are no longer susceptible to attack.I haven't used that feature since the updates came out that killed the Linux partition since I use that feature. But since then I can't use any new game or get on PSN since they all require a system update to do so. So $ony can #$%$ and not get any more of my $$$.
    • Brandon D
      Brandon D  •  7 mths ago
      Hackers need to be hung.I own a PS3 and was mad about the first hack.You people need to realise that hackers get into your personal pc without you knowing it probably every day or atleast once a week.The hackers are the problem not SONY itself.They should do a beter job and i belive they are trying.If you know a hacker dont report them.Sneak into there home and cut there throat.
    • Aaron
      Aaron  •  7 mths ago
      Are PSN users going to get another 2 free game for this breach? I'm still waiting for my 2nd free game when Sony cut me off before their infamous July 3 date of this year.
    • Someone
      Someone  •  7 mths ago
      Hackers get information off 93,000 users? Seriously?

      Okay, first off Sony, step your game up, seriously. I know you don't charge for PSN, so the revenue for use of network security may not be all that high, but this is needs to be fixed, even at a cost to your company.

      Second, hackers, if you hate the corporation of Sony, why are you getting the information of innocent consumers? Seriously, get Sony's corporate secrets, not the information of individuals. That's attacking the individuals, not the corprorations. You're creating collateral damage to these bystanders, and it's not winning anyone to your cause. Unless you're trying to steal information from individuals to steal identities and credit information, you're going about this the wrong way.
    • Andrew
      Andrew  •  7 mths ago
      progress... at least this time they detected it in the process and killed the threat. shows the work and money sony has put into its servers is paying off
    • AlbanyJim
      AlbanyJim  •  7 mths ago
      people are to blame because they are too lazy to set up a correct password
      you need numbers, letters both cap and lower case and symbol or symbols, it should be at least 8 to 9 characters long - data shows this will take a hacker 100 years to crack.

      The longer the password tougher it is, the more diverse the combo above the tougher to break - I was not one of the 100k because I use this formulation.

      Sony can't protect everyone - you need to accept your own responsibility for protection by solidifying your passwords.
    • Sierra
      Sierra  •  7 mths ago
      sony acts like 93000 accounts isnt a big deal, its only 1/10 of 1 percent. it is if your one of those people effected. they need to give out free games to win me back. im tried of them saying they been hacked
    • Regine
      Regine  •  7 mths ago
      WTF!
    • Justmyopinion
      Justmyopinion  •  7 mths ago
      Cyber hackers, thieves etc...should all be beaten to death with a club as soon as they are caught.
    • dave
      dave  •  7 mths ago
      Hackers need to die. You know who's going to pay for this? All of us. When the next gen consoles come out, don't be surprised if games cost 80-100 bucks. This huge security cost that developers and console makers now have to factor in to their annual budgets will no doubt land on all of our backs. All for what? A little anarchy? It's enough already.
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